Game and Visual Novel Metadata

Game and Visual Novel Metadata

A comprehensive plugin to search video game and visual novel databases (RAWG, Steam, VNDB, and HowLongToBeat), retrieve rich metadata, cover & banner artwork, completion durations, ratings, and descriptions, for multiple platforms, and embed them into your vault with Banners, Dataview, and Configurable Subfolder Hierarchy support.

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Features

• Video Games (RAWG & Steam): Search over 500,000+ games across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Mobile, and retro platforms.
• Visual Novels (VNDB Kana API): Dedicated integration with the Visual Novel Database (VNDB) for visual novels, including Japanese titles, developer studios and duration estimates.
• Highly Customizable: Comprehensive list of settings and customizations to suit all your needs.
• Personal Gameplay Stats & Modal: Edit your personal rating, status, platform, playtime, start/finish dates, version/patch, notes, review, and custom links at any time.
• Refresh Remote Metadata: Update existing notes with newly added remote metadata properties while preserving 100% of your personal playthrough stats and custom frontmatter properties.
• Custom Manual Entries: Built-in modal creators to manually catalog unlisted, indie, or custom games and visual novels.
• Subfolder Organization: Automatically place new notes into organized subdirectories:
  • By Status (e.g. Games/Playing/Elden Ring.md, Games/Backlog/Game.md)
  • By Developer (e.g. Games/FromSoftware/Elden Ring.md, Visual Novels/MAGES./Steins;Gate.md)
  • By Primary Genre (e.g. Games/RPG/Game.md)
  • Custom Pattern (e.g. {{status}}/{{developer}})
• Folder Separation: Separate storage folders for Video Games (e.g. Games/) and Visual Novels (e.g. Games/Visual Novels/).
• Banners Integration: Auto-populates banner: "url" and banner_y: 0.5 frontmatter properties.
• Dataview & Properties Ready: 100% standard YAML frontmatter serialization for Dataview use.
• No External Dependencies: Zero external runtime packages.

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Installation

Community Plugins (Recommended)

1. Open Settings > Community plugins.
2. Turn off Restricted mode and select Browse.
3. Search for Game & Visual Novel Metadata.
4. Click Install, then Enable.

Beta Testing via BRAT

1. Install the Obsidian42 - BRAT plugin.
2. Open the Command Palette and run BRAT: Add a beta plugin for testing.
3. Paste the GitHub repository URL.

Manual Installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Create a folder named game-metadata in your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ directory.
3. Move the downloaded files into .obsidian/plugins/game-metadata/.
4. In Obsidian, go to Settings > Community plugins and enable Game & Visual Novel Metadata.

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Usage & Commands

Ribbon Icons

• Gamepad Icon: Search Video Game (RAWG / Steam)
• Book Icon: Search Visual Novel (VNDB)

Command Palette

1. Game and Visual Novel Metadata: Search Video Game (RAWG / Steam): Search and create a new video game note.
2. Game and Visual Novel Metadata: Search Visual Novel (VNDB): Search and create a new visual novel note.
3. Game and Visual Novel Metadata: Refresh remote metadata for active note: Refreshes API data (artwork, description, HLTB hours, genres, developers) while preserving all personal stats and custom frontmatter keys.
4. Game and Visual Novel Metadata: Edit personal stats & review for active note: Open the personal stats modal to edit status, rating, dates, playtime, review, or custom links and re-render the note body from your active template.
5. Game and Visual Novel Metadata: Create custom Game note manually: Manual creator for unlisted or indie games.
6. Game and Visual Novel Metadata: Create custom Visual Novel note manually: Manual creator for unlisted or indie visual novels.

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Customization

• You can freely switch between different data providers (RAWG & Steam). I recommend RAWG because it has games from all platforms, but it needs an API key. You can get yours for free here. RAWG offers a very generous free tier so don't worry about hiting the limits.

• You can manage everything related to the note's creation and placement. That includes the folder, Visual Novel folder seperation, subfolder organization (including a custom pattern) and file name.

• You can also manage the integration with Banners and Dataview as you see fit.

• Finally, you can write your own template for the created note, or stick with the default one, with support of a massive list of variables to choose from.

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Dataview Examples

1. Completed Games with Days to Beat & Playtime

```dataview
TABLE 
  status as Status, 
  user_playtime as "Playtime",
  days_to_beat as "Days to Finish",
  date_started as "Started",
  date_finished as "Finished",
  user_rating as "Score"
FROM #game
WHERE status = "Completed"
SORT days_to_beat ASC
```

2. Backlog & In-Progress Games with HLTB Durations

```dataview
TABLE 
  status as Status,
  hltb_main as "Main Story (h)",
  hltb_extra as "Main + Extra (h)",
  user_platform as "Platform",
  user_rating as "Rating"
FROM #game
WHERE status = "Playing" OR status = "Backlog"
SORT hltb_main ASC
```

---

Example Frontmatter Structure

---
banner: "https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/292030/f7f564ecedd09b3e503b071a637aeefdedbeedd8/ss_f7f564ecedd09b3e503b071a637aeefdedbeedd8.1920x1080.jpg?t=1790693338"
banner_y: 0.5
id: "292030"
title: "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered"
type: game
released: 18 May, 2015
year: "2015"
genres:
  - RPG
platforms:
  - PC (Windows)
developers:
  - CD PROJEKT RED
publishers:
  - CD PROJEKT RED
metacritic: 93
status: Backlog
hltb_main: 56.8
hltb_extra: 123.7
hltb_completionist: 188.9
links:
  - https://store.steampowered.com/app/292030
  - https://www.thewitcher.com/witcher3
cover: https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/292030/e8afc4252e3fee8ed2525ab2fd7675cca39aa38d/header_alt_assets_1.jpg?t=1790693338
description: "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered modernizes the acclaimed role-playing game with a range of upgrades and enhancements. Become monster slayer for hire Geralt of Rivia and journey across a dark fantasy open world in an epic quest to find your adopted daughter Ciri."
short_description: "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered modernizes the acclaimed role-playing game with a range of upgrades and enhancements. Become monster slayer for hire Geralt of Rivia and journey across a dark fantasy open world in an epic quest to find your adopted daughter Ciri."
website: https://www.thewitcher.com/witcher3
steam_id: "292030"
tags:
  - game
user_playtime: 120 hrs
user_rating: 10/10
user_platform: PC
version: "v4.0 Next-Gen"
date_started: "2026-08-01"
date_finished: "2026-09-20"
days_to_beat: 50
---

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Template Placeholders

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License

MIT License